The Oncogenesis and Antitumor Research Group, from the Research Institute of the Hospital de Sant Pau-IIB Sant Pau, led by Dr. Ramon Mangues, has developed the first nanometric-sized drug that is selectively antimetastatic. This new drug has been tested in animals and the results are encouraging: it prevents metastasis and also induces the death of those that are already underway. This research needs to be completed with other funds to make the clinic a reality.

Current chemotherapy affects both tumor cells and healthy cells. On the other hand, the new nanomedicine drug does not cause toxicity because it behaves like a drone: it scans the cells of the organism in search of its objective and only eliminates the malignant ones; the healthy ones leave undamaged. In addition, much of the medication accumulates in the tumor, which can prevent many of the side effects of conventional chemotherapy.

The precision of the new treatment is possible thanks to the use of a nanoconjugate, made up of protein nanoparticles coupled with a very powerful chemotherapeutic drug, that manages the direction and the selective delivery of the medication. In particular, it is directed solely to the CXCR4 membrane receptor, which is overexpressed in the membrane of the metastatic stem cells, that is, those that have the ability to initiate and maintain metastasis. In this way, it is achieved to selectively eliminate the cells responsible for the start and maintenance of metastasis.

The new drug has been tested in a murine model of colorectal cancer with metastasis in the lungs, liver, peritoneum and lymph nodes. It has also worked in animals with leukemia, lymphoma and endometrial cancer.

In a couple of years, researchers are confident that they can try it in humans and expect them to have a high impact on cancer treatment, because current therapies offer very limited metastasis control and are associated with severe adverse effects. In addition, they believe that nanoconjugate could be useful in more than 20 types of cancers.

Public and private funds to start a Phase I Clinical Trial
To be able to launch this Phase I study (in people), the researchers have founded the spinf-off Nanoligent, a company created with technology developed in collaboration between the Research Institute of the Sant Pau-IIB Sant Hospital Pau and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, through Professor Antonio Villaverde and Dr. Esther Vázquez, with the involvement of CIBER-BBN and the ICTS Nanbiosis. They have also achieved a Challenges project from the Ministry of Economy and Business.

The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) estimates that in 2035 there will be 315,000 new cases of cancer per year. There are currently no drugs in the market that selectively eliminate metastasis, and metastatic dissemination is responsible for most deaths in oncology patients.

The group has been supported by the IIB Sant Pau Transfer and Innovation Unit that is a member of the Platform for the Innovation in Medical and Health Technologies of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ITEMAS.

See vídeo

Today, June 14, the Friends of Sant Pau have visited the new facilities of the Research building accompanied by their director, Dr. Jaume Kulisevsky, who made the presentation and explanation of the characteristics of the building and how the research groups will do research at the Institute.

Dr. Mar Gomis, from the Pharmacy Service of the Sant Pau Hospital, will present the mHeart project, a multidisciplinary tracking system for chronic polymedicated patients with the support of Mobile Health (mHealth), on 19 June at 9 a.m. in the Assembly Hall of the Sant Pau Research Institute. The event will feature an introduction by Dr. M. Antonia Mangues, director of the Pharmacy Service of Sant Pau.

Places are limited in order of registration: iibsantpau@santpau.cat

The event can be followed live via the link

Dr. Alberto Lleó, director of the Memory Unit of the Sant Pau Neurology Service and head of the research group Neurobiologia de les Demències de l’IIB Sant Pau, will be one of the 4 researchers participating in the scientific effort organised by La Marató de TV3. On June 12th, at 11 o’clock, at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, it will be possible to meet directly from the researchers the results of 4 research projects that this solidary initiative has promoted. Lluís Bernabé, director of the Fundació La Marató de TV3, will present the report on the occasion of the 20th Symposium, which will bring together researchers from different pathologies that have been overfunded by the 2013 edition of La Marató. Among them, Dr. Javier Pagonabarraga, neurologist of the Parkinson’s and Neurological Movement Disorders Unit of the Sant Pau Neurology Service and researcher at the Sant Pau Research Institute.

Dr. Lleó will speak during the :
The detection, in the liquid cerebrospinal fluid, of the proteins that form the synapse can serve to diagnose early Alzheimer’s disease.
The result of this research has led to an application for a patent and at the present time is working on the development of assistive devices that allow this protein to be measured in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood in a larger number of people to demonstrate the clinical application in more detail.
Consult the Symposium programme 

The IIB Sant Pau en collaboration with the Research Group on Perinatal and Women’s Medicine, led by Dr. Elisa Llurba, organizes the seminar “Air Pollution a mayor threat for health beyond the cardio-respiratory system” by Professor Jordi Sunyer, head of the Childhood and Environment Programme of ISGlobal. Sunyer is an outstanding researcher who has revolutionised the concept of environmental pollution and health. The appointment is next Wednesday 12 June at 15 hours in the multipurpose rooms of the Hospital.

SYNGO, a collaboration that brings together 15 laboratories from around the world, including the Molecular Physiology of Synapses, directed by Dr. Àlex Bayés of the IIB Sant Pau and the Gene Ontology Consortium (GO), has published SYNGO 1.0, the first version of a knowledge base that aims to collect the current knowledge of the neuroscientific community on the genetic architecture of synapses. The launch of SYNGO 1.0 is supported by the first scientific publication of the journal Neuron.

Using structured frameworks called ontologies, SYNGO has published nearly 3,000 descriptions of more than 1,100 unique synaptic genes, compiling published experimental information on the location and/or function of its protein products. SYNGO is fully integrated into the GO knowledge base (http://geneontology.org), the world’s largest source of information on gene functions.

Synapses, which serve as specialized contacts between nerve cells, are the fundamental units of brain information processing. The loss of coordinated activity in synapses is at the root of many brain disorders called synaptopaties. Examples include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, many autism spectrum disorders, or intellectual disability.

Publication in Neuron

Consortium members have used SYNGO 1.0 to demonstrate that synaptic genes have changed little throughout evolution and are functionally much more sensitive (i.e., less tolerant) to mutations than other genes expressed in the brain. In addition, the authors also demonstrate that variations in many synaptic genes are significantly associated with intelligence, educational attainment, ADHD, autism, and bipolar disorder. Synaptic genes are also much more likely than other genes expressed by the brain to support mutations associated with neuropsychiatric disorders.

* You can consult the article

SYNGO Consortium

The SYNGO Consortium was created in 2015 by Steven Hyman and Guoping Feng of the Stanley Centre for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIY in Cambridge (MA) and coordinated by Guus Smit and Matthijs Verhage of the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research (CNCR) at VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and, for the GO Consortium, Paul Thomas at the University of Southern California.

The transmission of signals from one nerve cell to another is orchestrated by a large collection of proteins located on the surfaces of neurons on both sides of a synapse, probably encoded by a few thousand genes. Decades of research have provided parts lists for different types of synapses, as well as many clues to how these proteins work together to boost synaptic functions. However, in the neuroscience community there has been no framework or model to represent and describe this information. The SYNGO Consortium met to synthesize the available knowledge and begin to fill this gap.

As a public knowledge base for synapse research, SYNGO provides

– A standard framework of definitions (an ontology) to describe the functions, locations and relationships of proteins and genes in the context of synapses.

– Literature-based, expertly based annotations linking synaptic genes and proteins to specific terms.

– Online visualization and analysis tools to evaluate the locations and functions of individual synaptic genes or for enrichment studies.

Learn more

Dr. Ramón Mangues, head of the Oncogenesi and Antitumorals Research Group of the “Fundació Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau”, has been highlighted by Diari ARA, in a special supplement published on June 2, as one of those responsible for the 10 medical avenues that will change life for humanitarians in the future.

You can consult the article on this link 

The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) in collaboration with the Cardiovascular Biochemistry Research Group led by Dr. Jose Luís Sánchez Quesada, organizes the seminar “functionalities of HDL and Merkel cardiovascular; Role of the Mediterranean diet” in charge of Dra. Montse Fitó, from the Cardiovascular Risk and Nutrition Group (Carina) of the Instituto Hospital del Mar de Investigaciones Médicas (IMIM) of Barcelona, CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN). The appointment will take place on Wednesday 5 June in the multipurpose rooms.

Dra Montserrat Fito Colomer 5 06 2019

A work led by Dr. C. Vicenta Llorente Cortés, coordinator of the Lipids and Cardiovascular Pathology Group of the IIB – San Pablo and the CSIC, has been recently published in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Biomembranas. In collaboration with the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and within a RETOS-Collaboration project funded by MINECO and coordinated by Iproteos SL, the Lipids and Cardiovascular Pathology Group of the IIB Sant Pau demonstrates that peptides derived from a sequence of the LRP1 receptor are highly effective in inhibiting the pathological process of aggregation of LDLs that takes place in the vascular wall during the development of arteriosclerosis.

Recently, with LDL samples from participants in the SYSDIET and EQUATOR studies, Nordic authors have shown that the individual susceptibility of LDLs to aggregate is associated with future death from cardiovascular disease. Therefore, LRP1-derived peptides emerge as potential clinical tools in the control of LDL aggregation, prevention of atherosclerosis and future cardiovascular complications, particularly in patients with LDL prone to aggregation, such as obese and diabetic patients.

The research groups in Cardiovascular Biochemistry at IR-San Pablo, led by Dr. José Luis Sánchez-Quesada, and Proteinomic Design and Immunotherapy at UAB, led by Dr. Sandra Villegas, have also participated in the work.

You can consult the publication
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000527361930094X?via=- Proudly Presents

The IIB Sant Pau, in collaboration with the Research Group on Genomic Instability Syndromes and DNA Repair, led by Dr. Jordi Surrallés, presented the conference “Advances in gene therapy for the treatment of metabolic and/or neurodegenerative diseases”. The conference will be given by Dr. Fátima Bosch, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and from the Centre for Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy (CBATEG), from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and CIBER for Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM). The appointment will take place on Wednesday 29 May at 3 p.m. in the multipurpose rooms of the Hospital.

Dr. Gemma Vilahur, from the Research Group on Molecular and Therapeutic Pathology of Atherothrombotic and Ischemic Diseases of the São Paulo Research Institute, explained the project “Intravenous administration of a modified HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor as a promising cardioprotective strategy in ischemic heart disease: Unlocking its cardioprotective benefits and mechanisms of action, in a highly transferable pre-clinical animal model”, funded by the Marathon, to a group of interested citizens.

When arteries carrying blood are obstructed, we have an ischemia, which causes damage and heart failure. A new drug tries to reduce them!

On 16 May at 10 a.m., La Marató and invites you to discover the Institut de Recerca de Sant Pau. Aim for the link .
Visit La Marató’s research area

The award-winning researchers for the Marathon have been working for three years to achieve advances that have an impact on the hope and quality of life of people with malaltia. In order to show citizens how research progresses thanks to their donations, the Foundation organises guided visits to centres where research is carried out with funds from La Marató. Between the months of March and June, hundreds of people have the opportunity to discover how the biomedical research process works, from the laboratory to the application in the patient, and what results are achieved in scientific prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the malalties studied. An initiative of high social value and divulgation that is part of the return actions of the Foundation to thank and involve the city in the results that are possible thanks to its solidarity.

The research centres that participate in the visits, all with intense research activity promoted by La Marató, are the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital Research Institute, the Germans Trias i Pujol Health Science Research Institute, and the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute, the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, the Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques, the Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida, the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, the Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Girona Dr. Josep Trueta, Institut Guttmann and Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

El Dr. Jesús Álvarez-García, del grupo de Cardiología Clínica y Traslacional del Instituto de Investigación de Sant Pau ha conseguido una de las becas de la Fundación Daniel Bravo Andreu para realizar estancias en el extranjero.

Desde que se crearon en 2013, el objetivo de las Becas Daniel Bravo es estimular la investigación biomédica de alto impacto académico, clínico y social en Cataluña, principalmente, en el campo de la imagen cardiovascular y las técnicas de diagnóstico no invasivas . Cada ayuda está dotada de 3.000 euros mensuales más gastos de desplazamiento para estancias de tres a nueve meses en centros de prestigio internacional. Nuevas aproximaciones a la insuficiencia cardíaca Jesús Álvarez-García, cardiólogo, doctor en Medicina por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) e investigador en el Instituto de Investigación de Sant Pau desde 2007, ha obtenido una beca para incorporarse a la Unidad de Insuficiencia Cardiaca y trasplante del Mount Sinai Heart Hospital en Nueva York (Estados Unidos) dirigido por el Dr. Valentín Fuster. Con el primer trasplante cardíaco en Cataluña, el Hospital Sant Pau inició un programa que ha permitido la consolidación de una Unidad de Insuficiencia Cardiaca que ha trasplantado más de 600 pacientes. La aparición de nuevos dispositivos de asistencia ventricular (VAD) y su uso en pacientes complejos, estén o no estén a la espera de un trasplante, requiere una formación y especialización que sólo un gran centro de referencia como el Mount Sinai Heart Hospital puede proporcionar, en palabras del Dr. Álvarez-García. La finalidad de la estancia en los Estados Unidos será, precisamente, determinar el impacto que diferentes indicadores y terapias pueden tener en el pronóstico de pacientes que llevan implantado un VAD estableciendo una línea de investigación y colaboración académica a largo plazo.

The Dra. Núria Jornet, senior consultant for the Radiophysics and Radiation Protection Service, has been awarded the European Society of Radiation Oncology (ESTRO) with the Emmanuel van der Schueren prize. This award, in honor of its founder, is granted to members of the society in recognition of scientific excellence and especially for its contribution, within the ESTRO, in the field of education and promotion of the Radiotherapy Oncology discipline. In the act of delivery of the prize during ESTRO38 in Milan, the Dr. Jornet presented a paper on the importance of learning from the clinical experience for improving quality: “Learning from clinical practice: pushing quality forward.”

On April 27, at the European annual Congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), the international scientific committee awarded a first prize, within the field of radiotherapy and dosimetry technicians, to the work presented by the dosimetrista technique Nuria Espinosa, from the Radiophysics and RadioProtection Service of the Hospital.

The clinical relevance of the award-winning work, “Strategies to maintain bladder and rectum volumes does not reduce the GTV movement for rectal cancer RT”, resides in an improvement in radiotherapy (IMRT / VMAT) preoperative for rectal cancer. The study evaluates the daily reproducibility in the position of rectal tumors according to the bladder and rectal volume control strategies. It is concluded that real-time image monitoring is required during treatment. This work is a clear example of the importance and role of technicians in the Radiotherapy process, and how scientific studies of this kind help to improve clinical practice.

More than 2,200 works presented were awarded to the prize. This first prize is a multidisciplinary work in which Dr. Josep Balart (Radiation Therapy Oncology), the technique Anna Coral (Radiophysics and Radio-protection) and the radio-physician María Lizondo (Radiophysics and Radio-protection).

Sant Pau and the Fundación Bancaria “la Caixa” present the collaboration agreement that will allow a clinical trial to be carried out on patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma B. Thanks to this collaboration agreement between “la Caixa” and the Sant Pau Research Institute, Phase I of this trial will be applied this year to patients refractory to the treatments.

The Hospital de Sant Pau is one of the eight centres in Spain that the General Directorate of Basic Portfolio of Services of the National Health and Pharmacy System, dependent on the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare, has authorised to use CAR -T medicines.

A pioneering trial in the State
The innovative test to be carried out is based on the selection of a type of T lymphocytes called memory T lymphocytes, which are small but extremely effective cells of the body. They are generated after a primary infection and are in charge of mediating the defence of the organism in successive infections of the same pathogen, as they are “remembered” from it. In addition, they have a powerful effect against tumour cells.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma B is one of the most frequent blood cancers in the world. It is an oncological disease of the lymphatic system, which mainly contributes to forming and activating the body’s defences. In most patients, the disease is eliminated after intensive cycles of chemotherapy and often a bone marrow transplant. However, many patients relapse, and there are currently very few therapeutic options that can be offered to them.

Researchers from CIBERDEM and CIBERCV have identified the mechanisms by which HDL lipoproteins, responsible for transporting good cholesterol and preventing the accumulation of cholesterol in the arterial wall, lose their cardioprotective capacity in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a pathology that does not produce symptoms and is difficult to diagnose in time. Among the researchers who have participated are Dr. Francisco Blanco Vaca of CIBERDEM, director of the Hospital Biochemistry Service and coordinator of the Metabolic Bases Research Group of the cardiovascular rich IIB Sant Pau and Lídia Cedó researcher of the same group.

The work, published in Ebiomedicine, shows that the HDL of patients with AAA present oxidative modifications that diminish their cardioprotective function. The authors, belonging to the Fundación Jiménez Díaz-UAM, the CNIC and the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Cruz y San Pablo -IIB San Pablo, explain that “oxidative modifications can be measured in the blood of patients and could be used as biomarkers to improve the diagnosis of the pathology, adding predictive value to traditional risk factors”.

A study led by the CIM of the Hospital de Sant Pau and the Research Institute of San Pablo seeks to prove that children who have enjoyed the accompaniment of the clowns of the Hospital, Pallapupas, present less stress at the time of being operated. This is a controlled clinical trial carried out with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of the Pallapupas’ participation in reducing stress in children undergoing General Surgery by determining the concentration of cortisol in saliva. The study focuses on children between the ages of 5 and 12 undergoing this type of surgery on an outpatient basis in the Sant Pau. Anesthesia, Paediatric Surgery and CIM teams have participated in this study.